


Life Has Changed

by Vikingfangirl23



Category: The Zombie Survival Guide - Max Brooks
Genre: Coping, Family, No Plot/Plotless, Short One Shot, Survival, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2015-07-20
Packaged: 2018-04-10 09:24:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4386473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vikingfangirl23/pseuds/Vikingfangirl23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carrie's life has changed entirely since the zombies came. All she can do is hope that someday, the world will go back to the way it was. Oneshot</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Has Changed

Carolina Violet Banks was afraid. This was not a good thing, as Carrie was seldom afraid and had never, never in her fifteen years of existence, been this afraid. It is rather hard to blame her, because very few teenagers find themselves on their roofs watching things that used be their neighbors wandering the streets in bloody rags for four hours.  
She knew her watch was almost over because of the way the sun was getting in her eyes over the rooftops. At the start of her shift, it had been totally dark. Carrie shifted on her stomach, head resting on the edge of the roof. What had once been Sarah, who lived across the street and down two houses, shuffled towards Elm St. The remains of Mr. Grey limped through the ruined doorway of the house beneath her. Oh no, she thought. Another Z to kill.  
“Carrie?" Her sister called from the ladder. "Watch is over! Mom's serving bread." Carrie stood up and stretched, yawning. Vivian, her sister, got onto the roof and hugged her.  
"You holding up okay?" Vivian asked.  
"Yeah." Carrie said."Staying alive." It had become something of a grim joke in their family.  
“For real, C.”  
“Is anyone all right? Is anyone going to be all right? Vivi, get real. Nothing is okay.” Carrie almost shouted. She was sick of tiptoeing around 24/7, unable to talk loudly or leave the house. Vivian, who used to be able to cheer Carrie up in the worst of her moods, was too tired to retaliate.  
“Okay.” She took up Carrie’s previous position on the roof’s edge. “Just go eat.” Carrie stared for a minute, then climbed down the ladder. Vivian was the older, in charge sister, always. And now, when Carrie needed that most, she was gone. She blinked back tears. There was no time for crying over nothing.  
On the third floor of their little triple decker, Mom was serving stale bread to her mishmash crew. Carrie’s dad was eating with Martin and George, who had rented the first floor before…well. Before everything. The kitchen was cramped with supplies from the rest of the house which had been moved up when the plague had started, a week ago. Blankets were hung up on all of the walls to block noise, so the things wouldn’t find us. Some still did, of course, but the troop held them off behind a barricade.  
“See anything, Carrie?” Mom asked. She brushed her brown hair back. It used to be down to her waist, but she had cut it short, above her ears, so the Zs couldn’t grab it when she was fighting.  
“The usual. Wandering corpses. Mr. Grey is downstairs, and there are about twenty in sight.” Carrie reported, swallowing the dry bread with difficulty.  
“We should kill a few this morning. Martin, George, you up for it?” Dad suggested.  
“Sure.” said George. “There must be ten down there now.” Carrie pushed back her chair and strode out of the room. From the back porch, she could see their backyard - grass splattered with blood, probably from some unlucky bird or rabbit, strewn with corpses. Beyond the yard was the field where five-year-olds used to have soccer practice, and there were high school football games every Friday. Now it was empty, except for one lone Z, ambling around in circles.  
What had happened to their world, that her father could discuss bashing brains at the kitchen table? What had made it acceptable for her to drag the destroyed Zs through the second floor hallway to the porch, where she stood now, and throw them over the edge so the others wouldn’t use them as a stepladder? Were they really staying alive?  
“Sweetie?” Her dad stood in the doorway. “Will you be our grabber for the next attack?”  
“Sure.” she said, and made herself get up to put on ‘armor’. It was really only magazines wrapped around their forearms and secured with duct tape, but it was all they had.  
The house Carrie lived in was a tripledecker - a single staircase and one apartment on each floor. When the Zs came, the first flight of stairs was barricaded, and everyone moved into the second and third floors. To clear the first floor, which was open to the street, Carrie and her neighbors put on armor, got weapons for the fighters, leaned over the barricade, and just swung for their heads. When one was destroyed, Carrie's task was to grab it by the arm and pull it up over the barricade. She dragged each Z that was destroyed to the porch, then pushed it over the edge. There was so much blood and gore that she had a special set of clothes reserved for the job.  
That morning they got 14 of the things, because more came the more noise they made. At noon, when Vivian’s watch was over, the sisters played Life. Neither mentioned their tense conversation earlier.  
“Vivi?” Carrie asked as she bought a Penthouse Suite. “Are we ever going to actually have real lives? Like, when this is over? Will we get married and buy houses?” She know she was whining, and on the verge of tears - again. Vivian took a long time to answer.  
“Yes. Why wouldn’t we? What’s stopping us?” she said, sounding uncertain.  
“If everyone is dead, that would be a pretty hard obstacle to get around.” Vivian looked at her in disbelief.  
“Yeah, I guess that is a problem.” Then they were both laughing hysterically, the game forgotten.  
“I could marry a corpse, I suppose.” Carrie got out.  
“Yes! In worms and in maggots, until decay do us part!”  
“Do you take these bones to be your lawful and wedded husband?”  
Sitting in that little, dark room, trying to laugh quietly, Carrie thought about death. They probably wouldn’t make it. The water was already running low. I had a good life, though. I had a Mom and a Dad and George and Martin being hilarious. Best of all, I had this crazy sister. If I die now, I would be so, so happy.

**Author's Note:**

> A version of this may appear in a later fic, but it's all still being edited.  
> Please leave kudos/comments, and thank you so much for reading!


End file.
